My foundation in ethics is not that strong or solid. I am by no means as pure and detached as I have been labeled, but I have my set of "theories" in this regatd, In rny opinion, humans became humans when they evolved from animal colonies. In addition to human nature, human beings have animal nature as well.
The basic instinct or nature of all living species is one and the same. They all need to survive, eat, keep warm, and develop,and they all go to great lengths to remove impediments to meeting their needs. Based on my observation, living creatures also have the instinct to compete and win, an urge to compete with and overpower other creatures. Humans are no exception.Fame and fortune ate often said to be the things that humans fight for in the wodd. Fame satisfies our instinct to win just as fortune satisfies our need to survive. When the two get entangled or intricately connected, they become a pest to humans that no one can eradicate. The sages of all times and all countries have tried their best to do that but have achieved little.
While I am often seen as relatively indifferent to fame and fortune, I am in fact fond of both. People's false impression of me is simply due to the environment I live in.
When I was in my 40s, I had alteady won all the highest honots that a Chinese intellectual could aspire to at that time.Academically, I was a member of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, later known as academiaan.In the educational circles, I was a first-level professot, and in the political circles, I was a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.Havi_ng climbed to the top of academic reseatch and education,I have no greater heights to scale. After all, I could not dream of ascending into heaven and become a god ot something.That is why in the forthcoming decades I could no longer be a candidate for academ/c promotion, even though I remained a leader. Had I been a second-level pfofessor at the time, which was not bad in a university, I would certainly have wanted to climb to the next level up.
However, I must add a few words here. Even if I wanted to cli_mb up, I would never contrive to lobby people, brag, curry favor, and do whatevet it takes to get what I want. That is simply not my style, and I have never done that.
At this point, I find myself entangled in a relatively absttact theoreticalissue, which is how to define a good or bad person?In other words, what is good and what is bad? Since I have never read any ethics textbook, I have no way of knowing whether there is any textbook definition. I have come up with a set of my own views, which of course ate extremely shallow,even primitive.
展开
